Professor Joyce Harper
Academic & Scientific Work
Joyce is Professor of Reproductive Science at the Institute for Women’s Health, University College London. She has been a global leader in the fields of fertility, genetics, reproductive health and education since 1987. As well as being an established scientist with over 250 scientific publications (access a full list here), Joyce is a passionate educator of the public and students at all levels, from school children to PhD level.
Joyce studied a BSc in Biochemistry at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London and a PhD in Pharmacology at Kings College, University of London. She started her career as a clinical embryologist at the London Fertility Centre with Ian Craft. In 1992 she joined Lord Robert Winston to work on preimplantation genetic diagnosis at the Hammersmith Hospital and joined University College London (UCL) in 1994.
Lectures and events for 2024 – can be found on the invited talks page.
Declaration of financial interests: Joyce is director of the Embryology and PGD Academy. She has been paid by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority as an advisor to the Scientific and Clinical Advances Advisory Committee, and as chair for the Horizon Scanning Committee. She has been paid by Natural Cycles for research advice, and for scientific advice by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. In recent years Joyce has been paid by the following companies to give talks: Gedeon Richter, Merck, Cook Medical, Cryos, and Theramex. She is sponsored to attend a number of scientific meetings – for a full list see invited talks page.
Joyce is director and founder of Global Women Connected. Joyce heads the research group: Reproductive Science and Society. Her current research interests fall under four headings: Fertility education, menopause, Femtech, and IVF add-ons. She is passionate about practicisng evidence based medicine. Some of her latest papers are listed below and a full list can be found here.
Joyce heads the research group: Reproductive Science and Society.
In 1996 she set up her first MSc programme, prenatal genetics and fetal medicine and in 2009 she set up a further programme, prenatal genetics and fetal medicine and in 2009 she set up a further programme, reproductive science and women’s health.
Additionally the Institute now has an MRes in reproductive science and women’s health and an MSc in women’s health. She has made a video to celebrate 20 years of the MSc programmes, from 1996-2016 which can be viewed here.
Joyce was Director of Education at the Institute for Women’s Health for over 25 years and still runs two modules: fertility and infertility: science and society and new technology in reproductive health.
Joyce is invited to give talks at numerous international conferences including key note and plenary lectures. She talks on infertility, fertility, menopause, reproductive health education, reproductive genetics, and all aspects of women’s health.
Joyce has written a book called Your Fertile Years. She gives public and corporate talks on all areas of reproductive health, from puberty to menopause. Get in touch if you would like to invite her to talk.
She runs events to discuss women’s health: Wellbeing over 40 which includes talks on nutrition, exercise, sleep, menopause and wellbeing. Watch Joyce talking about this event here.
Joyce was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics working party on Genome Editing.
In 2014, with Alpesh Doshi, Joyce set up the Embryology and PGD Academy which runs training courses in all aspects of laboratory IVF and PGD. She has made a video to celebrate 20 years of workshops from 1996-2016 which can be viewed here. In 2018 the Academy launched the Certificate in Clinical Embryology.
In 2015 Joyce established a web-based forum to discuss women’s health issues, Global Women Connected. Also in 2015, Joyce was co-founder of the Fertility Education Initiative. In 2019 she co-founded the International Reproductive Health Education Collaboration who are designing a number of free educational resources. In 2023 she co-established the UK Menopause Education and Support Programme which is co-designing a suite of programmes for women, transmen and non-binary individuals.
Joyce is passionate about sports and is a qualified aerobics instructor and an ambassador for This Girl Can Essex – encouraging women to do physical activity.
Further information about Joyce can be found on Wikipedia and her publications, etc UCL Iris page.
How I came to writing a book
When I was in my twenties I started working in the field of fertility and she often had conversations with friends about their bodies and their fertility. At this time I read ‘Ourbody, Ourselves’ and felt it was a book that every woman should read, but also felt that it did not cover all the topics a woman might want to know about.
1987
Women’s Health
Joyce started writing a book about women’s health in 1987. At that time she knew a lot about fertility but was not an expert in the other key women’s health topics. The idea of the book has been bubbling in Joyce’s thoughts for the last thirty years.
2007
Global Women Connected
Joyce went on to develop Global Women Connected. Through the years of working on Global Women Connected, Joyce has come to realize the topics that women want to know about.
2016
The Book – Your Fertile Years
But she also realized the limitations of a web site and so in 2016, she decided that she should finally write the book she thought of 30 years ago.